Community Highlights

After a remarkably successful cookie sale this year, Brownie Troop #7264 chose to donate their profits to the Abington Health Foundation in support of the pediatric hospice program at Abington – Jefferson Health. On June 12, Olivia Anderson and Abigail Baskin met with Christin Cliggett from the Office of Institutional Advancement to deliver their donation as well as two bags of toys for the children in Abington’s Emergency Trauma Department. Thank you for your generosity girls!

Thank you to the Cintrón family, who recently donated a microwave oven and an electric tea kettle to Abington Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for parents with babies in the NICU to enjoy. The items were donated to celebrate the first birthday of Rosario and Javier Cintrón’s son Gabriel, who spent nine days in Abington's NICU last year.

The Puma Ambassadors, a group of fifth grade student leaders at Willow Dale Elementary School in Warminster, presented a donation of stuffed bears to representatives from Abington Jefferson Hospice. Students created the bears during their second annual outreach event at Build-a-Bear Workshop to provide comfort to sick children and/or their siblings.

To celebrate his first birthday, Abington Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit graduate Foster Seigfried’s family and friends raised money in support of Abington’s Special Care Nursery. Foster and his parents, Brian Seigfried and Kelly Scott, recently delivered their generous donation and visited with members of the SCN staff. Thank you Foster!

Thank you to our partner Susan G. Komen – Philadelphia for presenting Abington Hospital with a $50,000 grant, which will help us continue to provide breast screenings for uninsured and underinsured women in our community.

Pictured from left: Bea Eisman; Bonnie Bacich; Rita Altman-Weinberger; Arlene Diane Spector; Michele Walker, RN, Nurse Manager; Chelle Freeman; and Marcia Quarles, RN, Team Coordinator

Members of the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework’s Masorot Chapter visited Abington Hospital recently to deliver a beautifully crafted quilt and eight dozen knitted hats for the babies in our neonatal intensive care unit. Thank you for your support!

In October, Abington Senior High School held a “PINK Out for the Cure” Breast Cancer Awareness Football Game. The event was very successful and raised both awareness and money for breast cancer research. A portion of the money raised, $1,250, was generously donated to Abington – Jefferson Health’s Rosenfeld Cancer Center.

Abington Hospice received a generous donation from Willow Dale Elementary School’s Puma Ambassadors. The fifth grade student leaders created special stuffed animals at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, which they donated to children in need of comfort, such as those involved with Abington Hospice.

The Upper Moreland High School field hockey team recently made a very generous donation to Abington Health Foundation’s Blair Bux Fund for Excellence, which is used to ease the financial burden placed on breast cancer patients and their families. By selling t-shirts and collecting donations at their annual “Pink Out” game in October, the team raised more than $4,000.

Ashley Berman spent her first few weeks of life as a preemie in Abington Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This past fall, Ashley decided to show her appreciation for the care she received by dedicating her bat mitzvah project to raising money to purchase sleep sacks for the babies in Abington's NICU. She recently delivered more than 150 sleep sacks to the NICU! Thank you Ashley for your kind generosity!

Pictured left to right: David Crosson, board member, VNA Foundation of Greater North Penn, Joanne Kline, executive director, VNA Foundation; Kitty Fitzgerald, MBA, RN, director, Abington Home Care and Hospice, Curt Deardorff, DDS, board member, VNA Foundation; Elissa Della Monica, RN, MSN, NE-BC, vice president for Post Acute and Case Management services, and F. Lee Mangan, president, VNA Foundation. Seated left to right: Adell Ruppel, board member, Friends of Hospice; Susan Kegerise, president, Friends of Hospice; and Mike Rogozinski, BSN, RN-BC, nurse director, Abington – Lansdale Hospital.

Through generous donations from the VNA Foundation of Greater North Penn and Friends of Hospice, inpatient hospice rooms were recently created at Abington – Lansdale Hospital. Two rooms were redesigned to ease the day-to-day stresses for the terminally ill and enhance the time they have with their families. Designed to embrace the patient, family and visitors, the Hospice Program provides expert and compassionate care and support, in a tranquil, comfortable and home-like environment.

Pictured left to right: Denise Mealey, MBA, MSN, RN, associate director of nursing, Abington Hospice; Nello Ianieri, member, Warminster Rotary Club; Janice Vallone, president, Rotary Club; and Katie Farrell, executive director, Warminster Campus.

The Warminster Rotary Foundation donated proceeds from its 2015 Annual Charity Ball to help establish an outdoor Serenity Garden at our inpatient hospice in Warminster. The Serenity Garden is designed to ease the day-to-day stresses of the terminally ill and their families by an opportunity to spend time in a peaceful environment.